Moderate extremist rejected by conservative?

James Taranto:

It looks as if we were right on Wednesday when we suggested that the Democrats had written off Dede Scozzafava, the Republican nominee for a special election to a New York state House seat tomorrow, and were waging a two-man race against the Conservative, Doug Hoffman. It was a busy weekend for Scozzafava, as the Washington Post reports. On Saturday, she dropped out of the race, and on Sunday, she endorsed Democrat Bill Owens

The Associated Press, reporting Saturday on Scozzafava's withdrawal from the campaign, described the larger implications this way:

Some have called the race a test of the GOP's future: whether traditional conservative ideology would lead the way forward or if a more inclusive approach would draw more people back to the party. Hoffman and his backers said Scozzafava was too liberal to truly represent the Republican party, specifically noting her support of abortion rights and same-sex marriage.

There's a scene in the 1984 rock mockumentary "This Is Spinal Tap" in which the band's manager is asked about its dwindling audience, and he says that "their appeal is becoming more selective." Before Scozzafava withdrew, her appeal was rapidly becoming more selective, with her poll numbers almost down to 11.

Of course in the artistic and commercial worlds, it is quite common to seek out a selective audience. But electoral politics is inevitably a form of mass marketing: A candidate wins not by carving out a niche but by getting more votes than anyone else. Call it being "inclusive."

So how is it that the AP's Valeria Bauman credits Scozzafava with "a more inclusive approach" than those of the candidates who actually seemed to be persuading people to vote for them? That's actually partly explained in the paragraph quoted above. "Her support of abortion rights and same-sex marriage" apparently were central to what made her "inclusive" in the Bauman's view. In practice, that support alienated people who disagreed on those subjects, but it seems Bauman doesn't consider those people worth including. The AP itself may be aspiring for a more selective appeal.

And Bauman isn't the only reporter to editorialize against Scozzafava's conservative detractors. The phrase: "too moderate" turns up four times in stories about Scozzafava on the New York Times Web site, three times in Times stories and once in an AP dispatch. All describe the reason that conservatives supposedly bucked Scozzafava--but all are the reporters' words. We'd be surprised if any actual conservative put the complaint in these terms.

...

Apparently Joe Lieberman was never described as "too moderate" when he was attacked from the left by MoveOn and other anti war activist.

Taranto is really on to something since most of the objections to Scozzafava were that she was "too liberal." So who does the the Times and the AP think is a liberal?

Scott Rasmussen points out why it is in Republican interest to appeal more to conservatives.